Dexter, Missouri – Two student athletes at Dexter High School earned top honors in football, but not for their athleticism. Jason Jarrell and Tyler Stevenson made Academic All-State.
"I am extremely proud of these young men. It is becoming more and more difficult to balance athletics and academics with the demands that both present,” commented head football coach Justin Peden. “Tyler and Jason are able to not only do this, but thrive in both the academic and athletic arenas.”
Students must maintain a 3.5 GPA, 25 on the ACT, and be in the Top 10% at their high school. Both of these gentlemen not only met those requirements, but also excelled in the football program.
“We actually had five or six guys barely miss the criteria,” continued Peden. “That is an indicator that young men in this town realize what is truly important. It is an honor to be associated with these young men.”
Dexter High School prides itself not only on athletic achievements, but academic achievements as well.
Congratulations to Jason Jarrell and Tyler Stevenson. The Dexter community is extremely proud of you and your accomplishments.
Bernie, Missouri – Bernie Mules hosted the Dexter Bearcats Friday evening for their annual Basketball Homecoming game and were defeated 66 – 54.
“When I first took over as head coach, Noah Kronk said to me, ‘you know coach I have played basketball for a long time and I have never beaten Bernie and that’s what I want,” stated head coach Josh Dowdy. “And it looked like he fought for it tonight defending Ellenburg.”
Kronk and his fellow Bearcats achieved that goal after trailing at half-time 31-30. Four Dexter athletes hit double digits.
“We got a win against Bloomfield earlier in the week and just wanted to keep that energy going,” stated Dowdy. “We challenged the kids all week to make a statement. We haven’t had a whole lot of wins, but we knew we were correcting some things along the way. We didn’t know if it was going to come tonight, but we thought it might even be next year to be honest. Man it was sweet and I am just so proud of these kids.”
Ethan Flowers tallied a game-high 22 points for Dexter including four 3-pointers. Jacob Pedigo paced Dexter with 15 points. Austin Chesser recorded 13 points including three treys and Jason Jarrell added 10 points for the Bearcats.
Dexter shot well from the charity stripe hitting 21 of the 24 free throws attempted. 18 of 20 came in the forth quarter alone.
“We tried to get the ball to our best free throw shooters,” commented Dowdy. “We shoot about 70% from the free throw line so it is definitely a strength of ours and comforting down the stretch when they start to foul.”
Brandon Sparks had a team-high 15 points before fouling out early in the fourth quarter. He also hit three treys for Bernie. Matt Vernon tallied 10 points including two 3-pointers.
Kronk and his teammates held Bernie’s leading scorer of the season thus far, Caleb Ellenburg, to just seven points.
“Noah started on him (Ellenburg) and when Noah needed a breather we brought in Pollock,” Dowdy said. “Our two football players came in there and played some defense.”
Dexter and Bernie are 3-1 in regular season SCAA play. Dexter will host Puxico on Tuesday, January 20th and Bernie will host Bloomfield. Game times are both 6:00 p.m.
Final Score Dexter 66, Bernie 54
Dexter 19 11 6 30 - 66
Bernie 15 16 8 15 - 54
Dexter (66) – Jason Jarrell 10, Jacob Pedigo 15, Austin Chesser 13, Ethan Flowers 22, Noah Kronk 6. FG 19, FT 21/24, F 11. (3-pointers: Ethan Flowers 4, Austin Chesser 3. Fouled Out: None),
Bernie (54) – Blake Gilmore 4, Matt Vernon 10, Login Wood 3, Brandon Sparks 15, Caleb Ellenburg 7, Alex Whitehead 3, Devin Trammell 9, Gavin Smith 3. FG 21, FT 3/5, F 20. (3-pointers: Brandon Sparks 3, Matt Vernon 2, Devin Trammell 2, Login Wood 1, Alex Whitehead 1. Fouled Out: Ellenburg, Sparks)
Neelyville, Missouri – The Lady ‘Cats battled it out with the state-ranked Neelyville Lady Tigers Thursday evening. Tied 57-57, the Bearcats took a shot a little too early with just seconds left on the clock giving Shelby Moon enough time to hit a bucket sealing the win for the Lady Tigers.
“The girls played well tonight. We were down by 8 at one point and 5 points etc, but battled back to just two and even tied at times,” commented Dexter head girls basketball coach Chad Allen. “We took that shot a little too early and Moon was able to make two at the end.”
Neelyville scored the first seven points of the ball game. The Lady Tigers were 16/16 at the free throw line in the first half executing all of their points from the charity stripe.
“We fought back and the girls kept their composure,” continued Allen. “It was a big game of runs and a good game for us. We told the girls that we are going to have close games. We just have to execute and we went a little quick there at the end, but we keep getting better.”
The Lady Cats led 39-36 before Shelby Moon hit a trey from about 45 feet at the buzzer to tie things up 39-39 going into halftime.
“We gave Moon too many looks in the first half.,” stated Allen. “We matched up better in the second half and were more aggressive. We lost to a good team on their home floor.”
Shelby Moon paced the Lady Tigers with a game-high 26 points including six 3-pointers. She scored 17 points in the first half.
“We tried to contain Moon from the 3-point line,” Allen said. “She didn’t get many looks in the second half. Our girls played pretty hard and were very physical in the 2nd half.”
Dakota Reynolds hit three treys for Dexter and finished with 15 points. Krysten Garrison scored 14 points and Melanie McKuin tallied 13 points.
Harley Allen hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to help close the gap with Neelyville.
Dexter drops to 8-5 and will return to action on Monday, January 18th when they visit state-ranked Park Hills Central.
“We’ve got some tough teams coming up. Park Hills and St. Joe Academy are both good teams. We will have to work on a few things next week. Park Hills depends a lot on their two sisters where Neelyville is more guard oriented. The Skaggs twins pound it inside for Park Hills and we don’t want to give them too many looks on the inside,” state Allen.
“Even as a coach you learn from games. A lot is my fault too in some of these games. As long as we are getting better each game and are battle tested by the time play-offs get here we have done our job.”
Final score Neelyville 59, Dexter 57
Dexter 12 27 10 8 - 57
Neelyville 16 23 15 5 - 59
Dexter, Missouri – The JV Cats had the edge and were ahead by 10 going into the fourth quarter, but Bloomfield rallied from behind to win 42-38.
It was Dexter leading 16-14 going into the half. They managed to continue their lead in the 3rd quarter 33 – 23 scoring 17 points. The Wildcats came alive in the 4th period scoring 19 points.
Tim Hector scored a team-high14 points including two 3-pointers for Bloomfield’s junior varsity team. Austin Phillips finished with 9 points. Joe Clary added two treys.
Jacob Hector hit a field goal with less than one minute of play to put Bloomfield on top 40 – 38.
Dexter’s Gabe Jackson tallied a game-high 16 points. Kole Kelley added one trey.
Final Score Bloomfield 42, Dexter 38
Bloomfield 5 8 10 19 - 42
Dexter 10 6 17 5 - 38
Bloomfield (42) – Tim Hector 14, Kyle Anderson 2, Jerry Craft 2, Joe Clary 6, Jacob Hector 6, Austin Philips 9, Matt Gibbs 3. FG 15, FT 8/13, F 18. (3-pointers: Tim Hector 2, Joe Clary 2. Fouled Out: None).
Dexter (38) – Kole Kelley 3, Peyton Tinnin 2, Trevor McDonald 3, Ben Sindle 6, Ryan Mayo 5, Bo McMullin 3, Gabe Jackson 16. FG 16, FT 5/10, F 17. (3-pointers: Kelley 1. Fouled Out: None)
Dexter, Missouri – The Bearcats rallied from behind earning 40 of their 56 points in the second half to defeat the Bloomfield Wildcats 56 – 46.
“We are just really struggling to find some consistency on both ends right now,” commented Bloomfield coach Jason Karnes. “We aren’t a very cohesive group and we just aren’t competing every possession like we have too. I give a lot of credit to Dexter and Coach Dowdy. They executed a game plan and they deserve a lot of credit.”
Ethan Flowers tallied a game-high 19 points for the Bearcats. Flowers also hit three 3-pointers.
Jason Jarrell scored 17 points and Jacob Pedigo finished with 13 points including his two 3-pointers.
“The last few games Jarrell has carried us on offense,” stated Dexter coach Josh Dowdy. “It is nice to see Pedigo and Flowers get in double digits. That may be the first time we have had three guys in double digits. That shows we are sharing the ball.”
After falling behind in the first half 24-16, Dexter had to change their defense with the Wildcats’ powerhouse Noah Vandiver on the court.
“We had to mix up a few defenses to try and take away Vandiver,” Dowdy said. “Peyton Pollock and Noah Kronk did an excellent job of taking him away. It is nice to see the kids show some grit and battle back from a deficit.”
“We also did a better job reversing the ball quicker against their zone,” Dowdy said. “We tried to hit the interior more to play more inside-outside basketball. Jarrell did a good job of tilting the ball to the open shooters and cutters.”
Peyton Bell hit two 3-pointers and added another four points for Bloomfield. Tim Hector, Caleb Pulley, Tyler Battles and Nathan Newell each added a trey for the Wildcats.
Dexter (3-9) will travel to Bernie on Friday evening. Bloomfield (8-5) will host Malden on Friday. Game time 6:00 p.m.
Final Score Dexter 56, Bloomfield 46
Bloomfield 12 12 11 11 - 46
Dexter 10 6 21 19 - 56
Bloomfield (46) - Tim Hector 5, Caleb Pulley 3, Peyton Bell 10, Nathan Newell 7, Austin Bond 2, Alex Gibbs 7, Noah Vandiver 8, Tyler Batles 4. FG 16, FT 8/14, F 18. (3-pointers: Tim Hector 1, Caleb Pulley 1, Tyler Battles 1, Peyton Bell 2, Nathan Newell 1. Fouled Out: Vandiver, Gibbs)
Dexter (56) – Jason Jarrell 17, Peyton Pollock 1, Jacob Pedigo 13, Austin Chesser 6, Ethan Flowers 19. FG 18, FT 15/22, F 19. (3-pointers: Ethan Flowers 3, Jacob Pedigo 2. Fouled Out: Austin Chesser)
Dexter improves their record 2-1 in the SCAA regular season play while Bloomfield drops to 1-2 in SCAA regular season play.
